Rev. James Martin, S.J.

One of the most surprising of all New Testament passages comes near the beginning of the Gospel of John (6:60-69). In that passage, some the disciples, after hearing some "difficult" preaching from Jesus, "returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him."

Returned to their former...

Can you say anything about the Catholic faith without other Catholics taking offense? No matter how benign, no comment on the web about Catholicism goes unchallenged. Moreover, the idea of trying to understand a person by reading carefully what they're actually saying, or giving them the benefit of the doubt,...

Often when we think about "God's will" we think of trying to figure it all out. What is God's will? What am I supposed to do? How can I discover God's will?

Seeking answers, we pore over Scripture. We talk to trusted spiritual advisers. And we look within, too:...

Please join the HuffPost community in "A Lenten Journey" for reflections throughout Lent, and join our online Lenten community here.

So it's Lent. And I'll bet you're thinking of what to give up, right? Well, instead of that, how about putting into effect a few...

Last year I listed 12 things I knew at age 50 that I wish I had known at 25. Now I'm a year older. And if I'm not wiser, at least I'm a bit more experienced. So here are 12 really stupid things I've done that I never...

In this video, Fr. James Martin talks about St. Joseph, Jesus' father, as a model for the Christian devotional life. Despite St. Joseph being nearly absent from the Gospels, he is an important figure in Christian history who raised Jesus to be a good, religious boy. In this season of...

What happens in the afterlife to an atheist? Well, the answer to most questions about the afterlife needs to be, "We don't know." While Jesus spoke about the Final Judgment and offered some striking images of heaven and hell, in the final analysis, no human being can say for sure...

An Elegy for the Sacramentary

There has been a great deal of ink spilled (and pixels posted) over the new English translation of the Mass, that is, the new edition of the Roman Missal, which will be formally introduced into American parishes this coming Sunday. Even the secular media has...

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Mike is one of the funniest people I know. A Catholic priest in his mid-sixties, he regales his friends with clever stories, boasts superb comic timing and has perfected an inimitable deadpan look. Today Mike is a popular professor at Fordham, a Catholic university in New York City, where his...

I have been both astonished and moved by the tremendous outpouring of emotion over the death of Steve Jobs, at age 56. Mr. Jobs, as is known by anyone whose fingers ever touched a computer or held an iPhone, was a dazzlingly talented innovator who, as President Obama noted, will...

One of the best ways of thinking about our relationship with God is as a close personal relationship or an intimate friendship. It's not a perfect analogy, but thinking about our relationship to God as paralleling a human relationship can be quite helpful.

Like any relationship, for example, our...

Sept. 13, 2001

Two days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, I made my way to one of the emergency trauma centers in Manhattan. It had been hastily set up in a cavernous sports facility called Chelsea Piers, on the Hudson River. I had been there earlier,...

On Sept. 11, 2001, I was working at my desk at America, a Catholic magazine in New York City. That morning my mother called from Philadelphia to tell me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. She was worried about me. That was odd, I thought: She...

I just spent two weeks on pilgrimage in Israel, where the three great world religions trace their beginnings. This is my first time in the place that Christians refer to as "The Holy Land." In a sort of spiritual photo essay, here are 20 important questions for the contemporary believer.

Do Engage. Maintain an active presence in the digital world, including on Facebook and YouTube. It is easy to set up accounts on both. Facebook features "fan pages" for public organizations that anyone can join or "like." Think about new modes, too, like smartphone apps.

Do Update. Frequently. If you...

In this segment from the film "Who Cares About The Saints?", Rev. James Martin of America Magazine discusses the life of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order. The full DVD of "Who Cares About The Saints?" is available now from Loyola Productions.

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In this segment from the film "Who Cares About The Saints?", Rev. James Martin of America Magazine discusses the life of St. Peter and how his experiences may speak to our own today. The full DVD of "Who Cares About The Saints?" is available now from